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my heat glow bulb has broken once so i got another one and it blew up. I feel bad becasue i think my turtle was basking for the first time and it blew up wirht by him. ahhh any reason why its blowing up

Water hitting the light bulb, the smallest amount blows them up. Thats why i just use regular house hold bulbs.

Painteds4life wrote:Water hitting the light bulb, the smallest amount blows them up. Thats why i just use regular house hold bulbs.

wel u need a regular house bulb and a heat bulb

turtledlucas - make sure one of your bulbs specifically says it gives out UVB. A lot of reptile 'heat bulbs' do not give out UVB, which turtles need. And both bulbs should be far enough away from the turtle dock and water so they don't get splashed on. UVB bulbs tend to be 8 to 11 inches away from the dock, and the Incandescent ones need to be far enough away to keep the temp only 10 degrees warmer than the water temp. Mine is about 6 inches away.

Most people use a common incandescent house lightbulb for the heat and then get a compact fluorescent UVB bulb for the UVB rays to mimic real sunlight.

And some people buy the mercury vapor bulbs (MVB) that do both heat and UVB, but they're large and expensive.

geekyturtle wrote:turtledlucas - make sure one of your bulbs specifically says it gives out UVB. A lot of reptile 'heat bulbs' do not give out UVB, which turtles need. And both bulbs should be far enough away from the turtle dock and water so they don't get splashed on. UVB bulbs tend to be 8 to 11 inches away from the dock, and the Incandescent ones need to be far enough away to keep the temp only 10 degrees warmer than the water temp. Mine is about 6 inches away.

Most people use a common incandescent house lightbulb for the heat and then get a compact fluorescent UVB bulb for the UVB rays to mimic real sunlight.

And some people buy the mercury vapor bulbs (MVB) that do both heat and UVB, but they're large and expensive.

ya i know i have a regular house hold bulb and a red reptiglowe bulb:). my red repti glow bulb is kinda far away because water drops from my filter kept hitting it. its about 2 feet away is that alright. it is a 75 watt exo terra heat glo

turtledlucas wrote:ya i know i have a regular house hold bulb and a red reptiglowe bulb:). my red repti glow bulb is kinda far away because water drops from my filter kept hitting it. its about 2 feet away is that alright. it is a 75 watt exo terra heat glo

Both of your bulbs only produce UVA which is heat. You only need one heat bulb (take your pick, but regular household incandescent bulbs are cheaper) and replace the other one with a screw-in compact fluorescent UVB 5.0 bulb like this one: http://www.exo-terra.com/download/high_res/products/images/PT-2187_Repti_Glo_Packaging.jpg.

thegrandpoohbah wrote:

turtledlucas wrote:ya i know i have a regular house hold bulb and a red reptiglowe bulb:). my red repti glow bulb is kinda far away because water drops from my filter kept hitting it. its about 2 feet away is that alright. it is a 75 watt exo terra heat glo

Both of your bulbs only produce UVA which is heat. You only need one heat bulb (take your pick, but regular household incandescent bulbs are cheaper) and replace the other one with a screw-in compact fluorescent UVB 5.0 bulb like this one: http://www.exo-terra.com/download/high_res/products/images/PT-2187_Repti_Glo_Packaging.jpg.

no my bad i have exactly that one and then a red heat bulb . doesnt regular house hold bulbs not make as much heat. like what is the wat

thegrandpoohbah wrote:Both of your bulbs only produce UVA which is heat.

False.

I dont know where this rumor stemmed from, but I am here to quench it.

Heat is infrared. UVA is ULTRAVIOLET.

UVA has a longer wavelength than UVB, and does no short term damage to humans skin. (no sunburn) It does however, dig deep into the skin, and cause damage there.

There is almost nothing "heat" about UVA. Besides that, UVA is only produced in VERY small amounts compared to the rest of the spectrum in a UVB/UVA bulb.



Note how UV and IR are on opposite sides of the spectrum. The ENTIRE visible spectrum is between them.

I guess the whole point im trying to make here is UVA does not equal heat.

[/rant]

Whatever the case may be....he wants to know why the bulb blew up.No need to get all Einstein every time someone asks a simple question lol.
Water made the bulb blow....They sell water proof ones that do everything at Petco.Buy that.

Yeah....sorry about that.


For a great "heat" bulb that is water resistant, use an indoor/outdoor type floodlight. It wont shatter if water gets on it.

As for a waterproof UVB bulb, I have no idea.

Regular UVB bulbs can normally take some (not heaps of) water being splashed on them---they're flourescent and don't get that hot. They also give out some UVA rays as well.